I have a question... the Vitari is clipped at 55 miles per hour for toad use. When I talked to the sales person he said that was because that was the legal speed to tow. Do you Vitari folks tow at higher speeds? I was looking at it because it is so easy to set up to Tow.

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I have a question... the Vitari is clipped at 55 miles per hour for toad use. When I talked to the sales person he said that was because that was the legal speed to tow. Do you Vitari folks tow at higher speeds? I was looking at it because it is so easy to set up to Tow.

We have owned two of them and towed them about 50k miles altogether. Towed at whatever speed we wanted to drive, which was typically 55-70 mph. Always stopped and did the 200 mile (more or less) engine run-up, though. We usually stop every 200-250 miles anyway and its no big deal to go back and exercise the engine/tranny a bit.

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Gary Brinck
Former owner of 2004 American Tradition
Home is in the Ocala Nat'l Forest near Ocala, FL
Summers in Black Mountain, NC

That information is there but generally not accessible to service technicians and rarely ever used for warranty reasons. Usually it gets extracted only if there is a major legal dispute, e.g. an accident.

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Gary Brinck
Former owner of 2004 American Tradition
Home is in the Ocala Nat'l Forest near Ocala, FL
Summers in Black Mountain, NC

I have a 2004 XL-7. We have always towed at legal highway speeds, 55-70 mph. and no problems as of present. We also stop every 200 mi. or so and go thru the starting and shifting thru gears process. No problem, we usually take a break at the same time.
Tom

I have an 06 GV...I tow at approx. 60 to 65 mph with my 40' DIP...tows great...I also stop every 200 miles or so to run the engine up...but as stated, it's about when we stop anyway. My dealer also told me the 55mph is a CYA for Suzuki....

The issue with towing is heat accumulation in the torque converter and lack of lubrication in internal parts, either transmission or 4WD transfer case. The engineers make some assumptions about how long you might tow and at what speeds and then generate some SWAGs about how much heat build-up and metal wear will occur over time and what effect that might have on tranny and transfer case reliability (read "warranty costs"). Then they pick some limit numbers they feel safe with.

So calling it a CYA is both correct and misleading. There is no magic number, e.g. 65 mph is OK and 66 is not. You are always wearing things a bit when you tow and at some point it will become a problem. Odds are you could exceed any of the limits or recommendations and not have a problem, at least not very soon. But if you live on the edge and exceed all of them all of the time, your chances of a problem become sooner and more likely.

__________________
Gary Brinck
Former owner of 2004 American Tradition
Home is in the Ocala Nat'l Forest near Ocala, FL
Summers in Black Mountain, NC

We toad a Chevy Tracker(made by Suzi) and now tow a Suzi XL7. We tow at the speeds legal. We also stop and exercise the transmission around 200 miles. We have never had a problem except a wheel seal on the Tracker which was installed wrong at the factory.

I don't knoow how one would build up heat in the torque converter as the 4 wheel drive is put into neutral and the transmission is in park! I caannot even see how the computer could record speed as the speedometer is not even turned on in the accessory position. By the way, one doesn't need pull any fuses and the running of the engine through the gears as recommended keeps the battery charged.